


Care Dinos to Heal the Heart

by SpringZephyr



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 11:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringZephyr/pseuds/SpringZephyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keita says he isn't good at taking care of kids, but Otome's daughter, Koharu, might know how to handle moody teenagers. It involves creating and drawing "Care Dinos" for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Care Dinos to Heal the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for a friend whom I'm not sure has an account on this site or fanfiction.net, but based off some of our inward jokes nonetheless. There's also the fact that I've been meaning to write some Devil Survivor 2 fanfiction since the game was released. 
> 
> I'm accustomed to swearing more in one day than Devil Survivor 2 does over the course of an entire game, and I think it shows even after editing. This story would have been a 'G' rating if not for the swearing. And even though Otome doesn't really play an active role in the story, I feel like she's somehow present enough to warrant usage of a tag.

The image of a little girl with her crayons coloring on a sheet of paper was so normal. It seemed out of place in this post-apocalyptic world, almost as much as Otome leaving her in Keita's care for the moment was.

 

He wasn't really good with kids, Keita. But it's not like he had a choice when Otome ran off without warning him first. Thinking back on it... Ugh, none of this would have happened if he hadn't gone to Otome looking for protein supplements in the first place. Keita was running out though – the stuff got used up fast – and even though it wasn't actually food, the local supply stores had been cleared of anything and everything that even looked edible. Demons, Septentrions, Void, end of the world, whatever. The only thing that was going to stop him from training his ass off or getting his protein back was his own death.

 

_“Be good to Keita, okay? Mommy will be back in a few.”_

 

Funny, but he never would've guessed that Otome might have a child. Keita never really thought about things like that either though, but – 'be good to _Keita_ '? Seriously? Shouldn't it have been the other way around?

 

The kid seemed happy enough, but...

 

“Damn it.”

 

Boredom was starting to set in already; for Keita, not the kid. The kid only stopped coloring and turned around long enough to tell him, “That's a bad word. Mommy says I'm not supposed to say that word.”

 

He groaned inwardly. He really wasn't good with kids. “Then it's a good thing I said it and not you, huh?”

 

Koharu puffed out her cheeks in a very childish looking pout, and started muttering, “Mommy says you have a bad personality.” Before he could respond, she continued, “But you're not a bad kid at heart,” and just how was he supposed to respond to that? He practically went out of his way to be a 'bad' kid – sure, he wasn't the dumb punk huffing his braincells away in the bathroom stall, but he wasn't the kind of kid you wanted to mess with or get into fights with either.

 

“What kind of idiot says 'at heart' anyway? That sounds sissy.”

 

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was apologizing to Dr. Otome. She may have indeed been a sissy, but she was also a sissy that he actually _liked_. Even if he wasn't so keen on admitting it.

 

“A Care Dino would say it, because all of their special power comes from their big hearts.”

 

“Care _what_?”

 

 _Lame._ He'd heard her, he was just surprised by what he heard.

 

“Care Dinos,” Koharu repeated happily, either unaware of his scowl or somehow ignoring it completely. Which was odd, because he normally scared children. That's what his ex-best friend Takao's mother had said, and that was the reason he hadn't been allowed to go over there until they'd stopped being friends, at which point Keita just didn't care anymore – apparently, he'd scared Takao's younger sister ever since his dad abandoned him. Whatever, he didn't care. It was her fault for getting scared in the first place, 'cause he'd never done anything to her.

 

Koharu carried on obliviously, “I made them for you, 'cause Mommy also says--”

 

“I thought your mom was supposed to be a doctor, not some damn shrink,” Keita interrupts, because, at this point, he just can't help it. The little girl frowned, probably cross about his swearing again, but it was _her_ mother who was prying too far into his damned life and _he_ wasn't about to apologize for that. If he scared Koharu too or something, that was officially now Otome's fault, not his.

 

“She cares about you!” Koharu protests, and he doesn't know why, but the kid looks like she's close to freaking tears over it. “Just like the Care Dinos do!”

 

“The Care Dinos aren't even real!” he snaps back. “And like hell she does! One day you're going to grow up and realize that...”

 

After seeing the effect his words so far have had on Koharu, he falls short. He's spent a lot of time feeling angry in his life, but never has he felt guilty for it the way he does now. Koharu actually _had_ began crying, and, even though the fact that it's his fault takes a moment to set in, there's no denying that she actually believed what she was telling him. Trying to justify his reaction is a reflexive move, as reflexive as jabbing someone who's just tapped him on the back,and it's as if telling himself that she just doesn't understand yet but she'll know in a few more years and will agree with him will make it all right or something.

 

Another swear slips as Keita lets out a sigh, and before he knows it he's apologizing.

 

The damage is done, he thinks, and there's no way he's going to get Koharu to stop crying in time and no way Otome is going to forgive him for this, no way he's going to get that protein he came here for in the first place...

 

“Damn.”

 

For some reason, he's going to try anyway.

 

“So... my dad used to play dinos 'n' stuff with me all the time as a kid,” he grumbles, wiping a hand across his nose so he can at least pretend that he doesn't care. He doesn't even know that the kid can hear him, doesn't even particularly care if she does or not because he doesn't want to talk about it.

 

But apparently she does, because she looks up at him and asks, somewhat weakly, “Then w-why aren't you happy?”

 

“Because my dad's a di... We're not really on good terms, that's why.”

 

It doesn't make him comfortable how intrigued Koharu seems to be by this, but at least she's stopped crying. There were so many better things he could be doing right now than revealing his past to a, what, maybe a five year old? Whatever. Keita tries not to fidget as Koharu, drawing in hand, moves to join him on the bench, but he's also trying hard not to look at her either. He really dislikes being touched by people too, but Koharu apparently disagrees or doesn't notice or something and sees nothing wrong with crawling onto his lap.

 

“Did you get into a fight?” she asks innocently.

 

Keita's still trying not to look at her, but her hair keeps brushing against his chin now and distracting him. She fidgets too, but that only makes it harder for her to do the same.

 

“Yeah, sure,” he replies, hoping that if he just tells her what she wants to hear she'll stop bugging him about it.

 

“...Doesn't sound like it to me.”

 

He's completely out of his element at this point. Having no other idea how to respond, he quickly blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, “So what's on that picture you were drawing, huh?!”

 

“Care Dinos!”

 

...Of course. Koharu was being really perceptive now, so he guessed she had just been ignoring him earlier. Maybe if he'd paid attention to what Otome said every now and again outside of issues concerning his health and fitness, he'd have heard her boasting about how intelligent Koharu was.

 

“I made them for you, so please at least look at the picture!”

 

Care Dinos were not really Keita's thing. The awkward streaks and blobs of waxy color across the page would have confirmed it if he hadn't known already. He'd liked crayons when he was a kid too though, and he had to admit that the kid was probably a better artist than he'd ever been...

 

“Uh, neat...”

 

Not that he really cared or anything! It was kind of impressive, since she was a kid an all, but Keita had better things to be worrying about.

 

“This one's name is Big Heart, he's the smallest Dino in the group but he's got the biggest heart. See? That's why I drew the heart on his tummy so big?” She had drawn an oval shape on each of the little creatures where their stomach and chest were. They all stood on two legs and wore big, happy smiles. Koharu was pointing to one in particular, definitely the smallest of the group, but the heart she'd drawn in bright red was so big it appeared smushed and barely contained inside the line of the oval. “He was picked on a lot by bullies when he was a baby, but he never gave up hope and that's how come his heart got so big and kind and that's why he has a big heart on his tummy, that's his marking.”

 

“You came up with a backstory for all of 'em in ten minutes?” Keita asked, feeling exasperated.

 

“Uh-huh. I got a lot of ideas from a TV show Mommy and I watch though, but I thought you'd like dinosaurs more, so I made them dinosaurs instead. You know how they defeat their enemies with--”

 

“The power of love or something equally cheesy, right?” Keita interrupted. Before Koharu became too pleased that he seemed to be catching on, he added, “I find fists are more effective. Straight jab before the other guy can even react, and pow! That fight is over. Moves like that only work against amateurs though, 'course I...”

 

The kid was being oddly silent, and that somehow interrupted and distracted him more than any amount of stupid, pointless chatter would have.

 

“...I ...Let me guess, Mommy or the Care Dinos or whatever say it's not nice to hit people, right?”

 

“Yes, Mr. Keita. Both of them say that.”

 

_'Mr.?'_

 

“And I guess I have to listen to the dumb Dinos too, huh?”

 

“Their first request is that you stop saying those bad words,” Koharu confirmed, smiling and all happy now that he'd finally been... pulled into her game or something. Was she secretly an evil genius or had he seriously forgotten what it felt like to be an unsuspecting kid already?

 

“Gotcha.”

 

It felt like he was agreeing to this way too easily now, and it seemed to be getting easier the further he went along.

 

“But I don't think you and your daddy really got into a fight.” Once again, Keita has no idea how to react, so Koharu continues without waiting for him to, “Um, I know you're sad about it and all-”

 

“I am not!”  
  


“Lots of people don't have mommies or daddies though. And my mom says that sometimes there are kids who have two mommies or two daddies or all kinds of families, really! And, also, if it makes you feel better, I know that Otome isn't my real mommy either...”

 

Keita thinks he and Koharu are actually getting along okay by the time Otome gets back, if not exactly great. He doesn't notice right away when she enters the room and he still doesn't like kids, but the moment Keita realize he's somehow been more intent on listening to Koharu's babbling for the past few minutes than he has been remembering the protein supplements he wanted he flushes the deepest red he ever has in his life. Then he pushes Koharu off of his lap and snatches the bag out of Otome's hand, stalking out of the room--

 

\--Or he would have, anyway, if Koharu had not called after him to not forget the picture she had drawn for him.


End file.
